The U.S. Patent Trial and Appeal Board’s (PTAB) decision Feb. 28 that Broad Institute scientists were the first to invent the use of CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing in eukaryotic cells is just another chapter in the ongoing saga of who has patent rights to various elements of the CRISPR platform.
Regulatory snapshots, including global drug submissions and approvals, clinical trial approvals and other regulatory decisions and designations: Harbour Biomed, JW, Lexicon, Merck KGaA, Reata.
With the first global approval by Health Canada in hand, Medicago Inc. aims to provide 20 million doses this year of Covifenz – which itself represents another first, as a plant-originated, virus-like particle, recombinant, adjuvanted COVID-19 vaccine. “Hopefully, if all goes well, we’ll be able to do it faster than the last day of the last month” of the year, said Brian Ward, medical officer of Quebec City-based Medicago, a unit of Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corp., which partnered on Covifenz with Glaxosmithkline plc (GSK).
After years of turbulent development that included a clinical hold, a COVID-19 stumble, a withdrawn approval application and an extended PDUFA date, the FDA has approved CTI Biopharma Corp.’s Vonjo (pacritinib) for treating the bone marrow cancer myelofibrosis.
Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and its U.S.-based Janssen Pharmaceutical Cos. reported that they have a sufficient level of participation to move forward with a $5 billion nationwide settlement to resolve opioid-related claims and litigation by states, cities, counties and other government subdivisions in the U.S.
There are several devices on the market to repair the dreaded abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA), but these carry some serious risks that have prompted multiple FDA advisories. The agency’s latest announcement recommends routine clinical follow-up for these patients for life, and the formation of a “real-world surveillance system” that may require the financial and technical assistance of industry and medical societies to develop.
Even as China sees strong and continuous growth in patent applications from its medical technology industry, regulators are imposing stricter regulations to curb what they see as "abnormal applications." China’s medical technology sector saw year-on-year growth of 28.7% in 2021 for valid invention patents, according to data from the China National Intellectual Property Administration.
The U.S. FDA’s device center has posted a report on premarket review performance metrics under the current device user fee schedule, and the latest data show an 83% rate of deficiency in first-cycle reviews of PMA original filings in the last three months of calendar year 2021. That rate is down somewhat from the 91% rate seen in 2016, but is up substantially from the 63% major deficiency rate seen in 2018, the low-water mark for this metric for more than a decade.
Chinese company Seekin Inc. is preparing to launch its cancer detection technology in Europe after securing CE marking for the Seekincare pan-cancer test. The artificial intelligence, blood-based platform uses insights from public and private data to identify cancer DNA and protein signals in the blood. The test has been available in Chinese labs since 2018.
The U.S. is making strides in addressing the drug and device supply chain vulnerabilities revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but there’s still a lot of work to do to reduce dependance on sole source suppliers and foreign manufacturing, according to a new Health and Human Services (HHS) report.
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